17 'The Fault in Our Stars' Memes That Would Make Even Die Hard Fans Laugh

BySamantha Rullo

Apr 21 2014

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During Sunday's MTV Movie Awards pre-show, an exclusive clip from The Fault In Our Stars movie premiered. Fans of John Green's beloved book were excited to get a preview of the relationship between Hazel and Augustus, played by Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort, but they may have been a bit disheartened by the reaction it received.

The scene shown in the clip is a classic in the book. Augustus pulls out a pack of cigarettes and Hazel incredulously asks him how he can smoke and starts to lecture him. Augustus explains that he's never actual lit one and utters this (slightly altered) classic line, "It's a metaphor, see. You put the thing that does the killing right between your teeth, but you never give it the power to kill you."

Those who had never read the book took to the Internet to mock the exchange and deride Augustus as pretentious. They're kind of right, being pretentious is one of Augustus's biggest flaws—on purpose. But without the context of the rest of the novel, they just criticized a moment that's actually important within the narrative.

Luckily, Green has a sense of humor and though the Internet was mocking his book, he was glad they were talking about it. Besides, not everyone was being negative, as "it's a metaphor" turned into a sort of meme on Tumblr, with some more lighthearted parodies. Green said he finds them "hilarious" and even picked a favorite.

That's not the only good TFIOS-inspired meme, however. Here are a few other great examples.